Hi,
Did you read my post Traffic Technique – Guest Blogging For Fame, Fortune and Traffic! from a couple of days back?
So I started my blogging career (or side job – whatever you want to call it) waaaaay back in January. 2008, that is.
Initially I started (lets give credit where it is due) because of James Brausch (you can visit his site at www.jamesbrausch.org). It was with that process that I turned off the TV and found that yes, life is OK without the TV and you really can get more done!
I originally started this blog to be geared towards internet marketing. But you know what, that is boring. So this blog is a hybrid. Part IM and part MMO/PROBLOGGING. It isn’t an easy thing to integrate, however the principles are the same – MAKE MONEY! 
Eventually I will split the two, with this site concentrating on internet marketing and my other site – http://www.mohamedbhimji.com concentrating on MMO/PROBLOGGING.
So over the last few months, what have I learned from my endeavours? Here it is, in a convenient list format… (where possible, I have provided additional resources for you)
Top 8 Problogging Tips for Fame and Fortune
Tip #1 – Quality Content Must Be At The TOP Of Your List
Visitors are coming to your site for quality content. They can find crap anywhere, the blogosphere is loaded with many millions of blogs. When you write, do it with a passion for the niche you are in regardless of the niche. Write from your experiences, tell a story. People love stories and to be entertained.
Content is still king, and will always be king.
Yes, it is difficult coming up with unique and quality content everday and you can certainly have fun blogging (as many bloggers did on April 1) but in the end your visitors want to see quality content
Tip #2 – Treat Your Blog Like A Business
Presumably you started blogging to make money – so treat your blog as a business. When I first started (man I’m sounding like I’ve been doing this for years!) I really didn’t think about monetizing the site or the traffic. But as I was introduced to other probloggers, I found that I was loosing out on valuable opportunities. So I started to slowly monetize the site using simple things like affiliate advertisements and 125×125 buttons. Am I making money? No, not yet. But as the site grows and traffic increases, I will make the money.
You should start monetizing your site from day 1.
It’s like winning a lottery and waiting 3 months before claiming the prize because you want to put plan everything. You can plan once the money is in the bank earning interest.
Resource: http://www.dailyblogtips.com/treating-blog-like-business/
Tip #3 – Network, Network and Network
Networking is so important, I can not stress it enough. In the corporate world or blogging – networking builds contacts. While you may not be able to make it to every blogging convention, or affiliate retreat – try to get to a few if you can.
If you can’t then you can still network by commenting.
When you comment, it’s tough to get noticed especially if the site is hugely popular but if you are commenting regularly, you will get noticed.
Resource: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2008/03/13/how-to-promote-your-blog-through-networking/
Tip #4 – Marketing, Marketing, Marketing
Like networking, marketing is equally as important. By commenting, you are marketing yourself — but don’t forget about your blog. Social networks are here to stay, and getting “onto” the networks is vital to market your blog.
OIBO sees a healthy dose of social network traffic from sites like Digg, StumbleUpon and a few others.
While you shouldn’t pay to get onto the social networks, that’s a bit of “black hat” social networking. If you do decide to go that route do it carefully. Nobody likes to be manipulated – and it could be the end of your blogging career if you’re discovered!
Resource: http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/06/25-tips-for-marketing-your-blog/
Tip #5 – Tweaking Your Site
Your site should look professional, neat and clean. While starting out, you may not have $500 or $1,000 to spend on a custom site design. If not, at least look at a good clean theme. Tweak it by adding popular widgets and plugins. If you can spend the money, consider getting a cartoon caricature done along with the character in serveral poses. You should also look at outsourcing to tweak your site – look at RentACode or ELance.
But tweaking your site doesn’t mean spending countless hours trying to perfect it. Face it, we’re not all graphic designers. You can easily spend hours and hours searching for just the right theme and still not find it. If you’re spending 10-20 hours a week on this, figure out first what your time is worth. $35/hour? $50/hour? If your time is worth $50/hour and you’ve wated 20 hours looking for a theme and you’ve burned what around $1,000 of valuable time? Your time would have been better spend networking, marketing and building your business. You should have gone with a custom theme, rather than waste that much time.
Tip #6 – Respect Your Commentors
Treat your commentators with respect. If they comment, and it is appropriate to respond – do so! It’s like inviting someone into your home and they talk and talk but you just sit and watch.
Tip #7 – Edit, Edit and Edit
Before you post, review the post! Does it make sense? Check your grammer and punctuation. While it doesn’t need to be thesis perfect, it needs to flow and be readable.
Tip #8 – Be Passionate About What You Do
Regardless of what your blog is about, if you are not passionate about it your visitors will be able to tell and they will not feel the excitement that you do. As a result, they will not visit as often and may stop visiting entirely.
If you are passionate about your blog, you will find that posting will come naturally. You won’t need to scrape your brain for topics and you will be able to post 2 or 3 times per day!
There you go – these are the eight things that I learned over the last few months that have helped me achieve several short term goals – one of which was to get to 300-500 visitors per day, every day. I’m glad to say that I’ve reached that goal… now onto the other goals I’ve set for the site…
If you have something to add, I would encourage you to comment on this post. Hopefully Akismet lets it go through without problems; otherwise I will need to moderate it and I check for comments often.
Take care,
Image (Money Dog): http://www.justinesmith.net/washington.html
Technorati Tags: Internet Business, internet marketing
Is it me, or are the gurus targetting n00bies even more fervently this year than in years past? I’ve seen no less than 15 offers for basic training (that you can find FREE on the internet, or here). Here is the latest. Lets see if you caught the fuck-up that either this marketer made or the product made in putting together their mass e-mail distribution cut & paste crappy e-mail; I made it easy for you to spot…
Among my many responsibilities as a Director of Customer Service is that I’m in charge of HR. I am responsible to hire, terminate, promote or demote. I also interview many candidates for positions that are available within my department.
Hi,
Hi,
